Camera Buff
1980 ‘Amator’ Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Synopsis
Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.
Cast
Popular reviews
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A person is dead but she lives on here
The synopsis for this film sounds like a dream. Fanfiction. I guess it is. I'm not fond of reviews that recap plot but i can't help but put this at the start.
''Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.''
Get camera. Wear camera. Fly. In classic Polish fashion, whilst the wife is in hospital having the child, the husband is at… -
What a fantastic film about the artist's journey and the desire for something more than mere "tranquility." While this is my first Kieslowski film, this seemed to be a good place to start as it illuminates Kieslowski's own passion and perfectly encompasses the power & consequences of film. I am very excited to check out the rest of the director's work.
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This movie was close to being great for me that it hurts, really there's one thing that kept kicking me out of it and i never managed to get over it, the wife's issue never managed to make sense to me, later on she has actual reasons to worry, but for her it begins when he is filming for the first time, she is already giving him horrible looks, which made no sense to me, I guess you could say that jsut from that she was predicting later developments, but it's a stretch. And this mini review really represents how I felt during the movie, that small detail kept distracting me the whole time and didn't allow me to fully…
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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My favorite of Kieslowski's early fiction work, Camera Buff presents a portrait of a filmmaker's passionate pursuit of his art--from merely learning about the camera to his growing obsession with his art, from fighting for the purity of his work to understanding the fundamentally personal nature of each film he produces. Kieslowski beautifully shows Filip's artistic awakening as a counterpoint to his struggling marriage, refusing to offer easy solutions or empty platitudes to the film's central paradox.
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A person is dead but she lives on here
The synopsis for this film sounds like a dream. Fanfiction. I guess it is. I'm not fond of reviews that recap plot but i can't help but put this at the start.
''Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.''
Get camera. Wear camera. Fly. In classic Polish fashion, whilst the wife is in hospital having the child, the husband is at… -
When a subject is observed (or filmed) it changes the way that both the subject and observer function in and relate to the outside world.
In general, I've never liked the way that 70s movies looks, but I should have known that Kieslowski would find a way to give grimy, 1970s Poland a gorgeous, beautifully-lit hue.
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4.8/5
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"I had a brother-in-law who at 30 started to believe in God." "So? That's how old I am." "No good came of it." "What happened to him?" "He became a priest."
Kieslowski's second feature fictional film is also his first quote-unquote great & important film, chronologically. Beautifully portrays a couple that doesn't really know how to deal with passion. Accidental filmmaker Filip can't help but violently throw himself headlong into his new passion (though early on he does make the effort to find balance), wife Irka can't even begin to comprehend why anyone would want to love more than one thing and it irrationally infuriates her.
Camera Buff exemplifies an older, more mature and fully-formed Kieslowski. His uncompromising look at the… -
(This review is based on my first viewing of the film and my first Kieslowski film)
STORY: 7.5/10
Simple black and white screen showing the credits starts this film off. We dive into the somewhat boring life of Filip. Living in a Poland that looks like its right out of a Mad Max film, Filip carries his wife to the hospital, (why didn't he call a cab?) and awaits the birth of his child. They both hope that its a daughter. It is. Filip bought a 8mm camera to film everything his new born baby daughter does. But when his boss catches wind that he has a camera, the boss asks Filip to make a documentary of the factory. What… -
"The most real movie about making indie movies"